Duke moves past loss to Terps

By Halifax Media Group

Published: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at 10:50 PM.

DURHAM — Mike Krzyzewski began his comments to reporters Tuesday by saying, “everybody right now is ready to play for Friday.”

The Duke coach was speaking in physical terms, specifically about the status of guard Seth Curry and forward Ryan Kelly, the seniors whose collective health has formed one of this basketball season’s continual topics.

But still it was an opening sentence that, to a certain degree, provided ear-perking material, given the unusually flat performance that bounced the Blue Devils from the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

When second-seeded Duke (27-5) starts the NCAA Tournament against 15th-seeded Albany (24-10) on Friday afternoon, its most recent game experience will be that of the 83-74 loss administered by Maryland in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.

Krzyzewski said that immediate exit last week from the Greensboro Coliseum shouldn’t carry over and build into a source of angst for the NCAAs later this week in Philadelphia.

“I don’t think it’s a big thing,” he said. “I knew how I was preparing my team. I thought we would play well. … But it happens. It just happens.”

The Duke coach said less than two minutes had elapsed from his team’s eventual loss to Maryland in the ACC Tournament when he became concerned about uncontrollable aspects, such as human nature, that can produce potholes even when smooth sailing is the expectation.

DURHAM — Mike Krzyzewski began his comments to reporters Tuesday by saying, “everybody right now is ready to play for Friday.”

The Duke coach was speaking in physical terms, specifically about the status of guard Seth Curry and forward Ryan Kelly, the seniors whose collective health has formed one of this basketball season’s continual topics.

But still it was an opening sentence that, to a certain degree, provided ear-perking material, given the unusually flat performance that bounced the Blue Devils from the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

When second-seeded Duke (27-5) starts the NCAA Tournament against 15th-seeded Albany (24-10) on Friday afternoon, its most recent game experience will be that of the 83-74 loss administered by Maryland in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.

Krzyzewski said that immediate exit last week from the Greensboro Coliseum shouldn’t carry over and build into a source of angst for the NCAAs later this week in Philadelphia.

“I don’t think it’s a big thing,” he said. “I knew how I was preparing my team. I thought we would play well. … But it happens. It just happens.”

The Duke coach said less than two minutes had elapsed from his team’s eventual loss to Maryland in the ACC Tournament when he became concerned about uncontrollable aspects, such as human nature, that can produce potholes even when smooth sailing is the expectation.

“When you win those battles against human nature, and you lose them, you learn through that,” Krzyzewski said. “I’m 66. I can be ready every day at this time in my life, because when fielding things that would defeat you, I have mechanisms, for me personally, that I can use. Now to translate that to 19-, 20-, 21-year-olds, that’s difficult.

“And so, at 90 seconds into the Maryland game, that’s what I was doing. And we weren’t able to do it. Maryland was really good and human nature was really rampant that night.”

The Blue Devils have held practices each day since their one-and-done departure Friday night from the ACC Tournament. Curry and Kelly have followed a one-day-on, one-day-off practice schedule since the weekend to try to keep wear and tear at a minimum.